The ANU Poets Lunch has continued , in various incarnations, for the last
30 years – and remains a mad poets’ wine party where Alice is always tipsy but never drunk and the Cheshire cat passes around non-animal rennet cheeses. The latest episode was held on Wednesday 2nd December at the ANU Emeritus Faculty.

This year’s lunch was dedicated to Joel Webster, a generous friend who sadly is no longer with us.

This year’s theme was Pandora’s Box (which may have been an amphora, according to David Walker’s illustration) and we spent several enjoyable hours examining its contents.

Here’s my contribution:

Wings and Stings

Just a little bit
I won’t give right in
But I need this
Solace
You make me feel
Champaign bubbles in my veins
What might we be
You and me?
Shh.

Just a little more
My temptation
I despair when you leave
And crumple at your touch
Like a doll entranced by its maker

You are strong wine
I crack
And all my disparate bits of
Love, joy, desire and sacred honour
Go flying
Out on ghostly wings
Poor heedless moths
Save only one
Remains entrapped
The dearest part that knows the lie
I can’t let go of
Hope

It was unanimously agreed that Pandora was givena bum rap and the case against her was dismissed by the poetic jury as being yet another instance of women bearing the blame for all the world’s woes.

We also remembered that it’s been 20 years since several of us, including Joel and myself, first hosted ‘Writers at Kimbos’ .

Long ago, but not far away, on Monday nights at Kimbos winebar in Phillip, we conducted readings of poetry and short prose for a couple of years. Wow. So many years have passed and yet I don’t feel that much older. I guess everybody has that complaint. I can’t remember where the years went, nor can I re-use the time. Heavy sigh – that’s life.

Cover by Jane Virgo

In 1991, our small committee published ‘Rescuing Beached Mondays’, a collection of the first year’s readings which contained some fine poetry and prose, including work by Joel, Mark O’Connor, Lorne Doyle, Brian Hungerford, Myron Lysenko, Linchay Bone, Robin Davidson, Trevor Crook and many talented others. Strangely, after all these years, the book can still be found at BibliOZ and Marlowes Books.

It only had a small print run – only 500 copies, but it was well received. We were pleased with the collection, and consequently founded Boris Books, named after David Walker’s marvellous cat, Boris Katoff, who sat on every page.

Boris has been an absent friend for many years, but Boris Books born in 1993, is still alive – if not prolific – and even manages to break even.